Who is the most underrated driver in f1, either current or previous? Or the most unlucky or just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Ill start the discussion with a few that I think and the reasons why.
1. Johnny Herbert. Mr Unlucky in Formula 1. Nearly always in the wrong team at the wrong time or suffered horrible reliability. His one season in a top team, he had the misfortune of being teammate to Michael Schumacher in his championship winning year of 1995. But even so he finished all but 1 race in the points (due only to engine failure),and recorded 2 wins, including a stunning drive from 8th on the grid in Italy. And he then had another great victory from 14th on the grid at Nurburgring 1999 while driving for the mid-grid Stewart team.

2. Nico Rosberg. I know this will be controversial but i think Nico is much better than people give him credit for. First few years in F1, he had a string of unreliable or underpowered Williams and with the exception of Mark Webber, no teammate to really push him. Same thing in his first few years at Mercedes-yes Michael Schumacher as teammate, but Michael was well past his best and maybe not quite as motivated as his Ferrari years. But now he has Lewis Hamilton alongside him he is matching or even beating him at times. He has also so far proven himself to be mentally tough enough, not allowing Hamilton's run of 4 straight wins at the start of the year to affect him. He is my bet for world champion this year. He deserves it.

3. Jean Alesi. One of the best wet-weather drivers the sport has ever seen and one of the fastest starters, Alesi unfortunately allowed his heart to rule his head for most of his career. After impressing in an underpowered Tyrrell through 1989 and 1990, he had a deal signed to drive for Williams from 1991 onwards as teammate to Nigel Mansell. But, he pulled out after the opportunity came up to drive for Ferrari, which, being half-Italian, was his lifelong dream. Only 1 victory followed, but a stunning win at Canada in 1995 on his 31st birthday. Again, poor reliability throughout his career stopped some excellent results-a win was on the cards at Monaco 1996 before a car failure. Same story at Sauber in his later years, but he still had an exceptional ability to get ordinary cars high up the grid and run well. Deserved many more wins.